Correspondence: Jami Fullerton, School of Journalism and Broadcasting, Oklahoma State University, 700 N. Greenwood Ave., Tulsa, OK 74106, USA. Tel: +1 918 594 8579; Fax: +1 918 594 8281; e-mail: jamia@okstate.edu

¹obtained her PhD from University of North Texas and is an associate professor at Oklahoma State University. She is the author of Advertising's War on Terrorism with Alice Kendrick. Her research interests include cross-cultural communication and media globalisation.

²obtained her PhD from the University of Tennessee and is Professor of Advertising in the Temerlin Advertising Institute, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, USA. Her research interests include mass media and public diplomacy, advertising employment issues and advertising education.

³earned her Masters degree in Mass Communication from Oklahoma State University and is a practicing public relations professional in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.

Received 13 January 2008; Revised 13 January 2008.

Abstract

In late 2006, the government of Kazakhstan sponsored a multi-media advertising campaign in the United States. The television commercial from that campaign served as the stimulus for a pre–post experiment to determine if US citizens' attitudes changed as the result of viewing it. Findings showed that although public diplomacy-related attitudes toward the Kazakhstani government and Kazakhstani people did not change after seeing the commercial, tourism-related attitudes toward Kazakhstan improved significantly. A diagnostic copy test revealed that US viewers often reacted with surprise and disbelief to the commercial's exotic and appealing portrayal of Kazakhstan, a country about which they knew little before. The study has implications for countries wishing to establish and improve their images in the United States and adds to the growing literature on place branding.